What Is the Average Spinal Cord Injury Settlement?

Generally, people ask this question after they’ve been in a major accident. It could be a car accident, a slip and fall accident, or some other kind of accident.

When the spinal cord is involved, it’s very serious. But all spinal cord injuries are not alike. The average spinal cord injury settlement is complex to estimate.

That being said, it is possible to examine the factors that play into what a personal injury settlement amounts to and what your attorney’s job looks like in maximizing that number.

Spinal Cord Injuries and Personal Injury Lawsuits

In any personal injury lawsuit, you are entitled to recover damages for:

Medical expenses,

Lost wages,

Any costs related to your injury,

Non-economic damages.

For the moment, let’s set aside non-economic damages.

Economic damages include any countable amount of money that you have lost as a result of your injuries. This can include medical expenses and lost wages, but in the case of spinal injuries, it may also include making major modifications to your house or even hiring full-time help or paying for 24-hour care in the case of total paralysis.

If you can no longer do the work that you once did, that could mean pursuing other vocational training. That too is a potential expense. If that’s the case, then you’re entitled to all of that and more.

Non-economic damages are a different story entirely. These include non-quantifiable elements like pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment, emotional trauma, loss of society. In the case of a permanent impairment, the damages can be substantial.

What You Need to Know about Personal Injury Lawsuits

After tallying up all those damages in your head, you’ve probably come up with a pretty big number. This, however, is the bad news.

In most cases, you will be filing a claim on a negligent party’s insurance policy. This will either be auto insurance coverage, homeowners insurance, or generalized commercial liability. While recovery can be significant, these insurance policies will never pay out more than the insurance policy limit.

In Colorado, the minimum amount of coverage for bodily injury liability is $25,000. That’s it. If you’ve sustained serious injuries and it’s easy to show that it was a negligent driver’s fault, if they only carry a $25,000 policy, that’s about all you’ll be able to get. While you can sue the individual for damages in excess of their insurance policy, people that carry the minimum generally don’t have a ton of assets to sue.

So, while you may be entitled under the law to recover millions of dollars, you may not be able to recover much more than the insurance policy limit.

Should I Hire an Attorney if I’ve Suffered a Spinal Cord Injury?

Yes. The general rule of thumb is: the more serious your injuries are, the more important it is to have an attorney manage your claim. As your attorneys, it’s our job to make sure that the insurance company pays you what you’re owed. Additionally, we look into the negligent party to determine what, if any, assets we can sue.

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About the Author

Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts is the managing attorney at the Law Office of Steve Roberts, LLC. Steve is originally from Omaha, Nebraska. After law school in Southern California, he moved to Denver, Colorado where he has developed his personal injury practice and become part of the Colorado legal community as a member of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association and the Thompson G. Marsh Inn of Court. Read More